[Year 12 Its] Linux v XP

[Guy Flaherty]

On Thursday 16 February 2006 11:38, Con Zymaris wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 16, 2006 at 11:11:31AM +1100, Guy Flaherty wrote:
> > Con,
> >
> > We are a laptop school, so all the students use their own laptops, mostly
> > standard Acer models, along with HP business desktop machines in the lab.
> > Just standard PC boxes for the most part. 512mb works better then 256
> > though! The VM disk file comes in at 2.7Gb, but this is no problem with a
> > wired connection. Struggles on the wireless a bit.
> >
> > I do a lot of development work here at the school, and only started
> > teaching again this year after returning from overseas. I use SuSE for
> > all our development due to tools like Quanta+, Eric3, postgresQL, mySQL
> > and others. With the IS class I decided to use Python as the language and
> > the best IDE I could find was Eric3. KDE and SuSE work very well and the
> > students have had no problems adjusting away from windows. They have been
> > quite keen so far! Having a functional shell in Linux helps a lot too.
> >
> > The aim of this is for Python development and general scripting
> > development.
> >
> > Hope this answers your questions.
>
> Yes. It does.
>
> We're in the process of working on a Live USB-based desktop for students,
> and info like this certainly helps.
>
> The idea being that students can carry their entire 'portfolio' of
> desktop, apps and data around with them, work and home, all in their
> pocket. Whichever PC they sit at, they plug the USB key in and boot up to
> their desktop and documents. We've also worked out ways in which automatic
> data backups can occur when they plug the USB into a school network,
> obviating any loss of work.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Con Zymaris
>
> - CEO, Cybersource Pty. Ltd.
> - Director, Open Source Industry Australia, Limited.
> - Convenor, Open Source Victoria (A Government-funded industry cluster.)

Hmm, we looked at this, along with dual-boot and a live cd as an option for 
the class. I actually made a few bootable usb key drives using DSL and SLAX 
based stuff. Worked well but generally didn't include all the apps we need! 
The best thing about using the VM image is being able to switch between 
Windows and Linux instantly. Being a novell school, we also can use the Linux 
version of the Novell Client to get into the servers and network stuff too. 
In the end, this and the hardware abstraction of the VM player meant that 
this was the best option for us. With a usb key you still have to cater for a 
lot of hardware if the students are using it for their laptops, even though 
80% are standard Acer ones. If you only had desktops with compatable 
hardware, usb boots might be OK. The only problem I can see with carrying 
their entire portfolio around with them is if they lose it! Our students have 
access to their network file storage areas through the college portal. Not 
much use if they don't have an internet connection though. Also, most schools 
run heavily locked down environments and the idea of a student being able to 
boot up a system to do whatever they want in might scare a lot of admins! I 
would love to see it though. Could be a useful tool in some circumstances.

Thanks,
Guy


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